[Doug]

The fellow I am talking to about reproducing these items has indicated that he can reproduce the bearing housing rings himself. He also indicates that he has a source for a quality bearing for use in the piece.

Accordingly, he has indicated that he could produce a complete insulator with bearing installed and he is inclined to make them up that way.

Thankfully, board member "Chiefkey" has volunteered to provide a NOS insulator to the fellow for measuring, Durometer testing, etc. The testing of the NOS insulator will be non-destructive.

At this point, the fellow needs to have an old insulator with ring (or just the ring itself) for his machinist to measure.

Does anyone have an old insulator (or just the ring itself) that you are willing to furnish for the cause???

Also, the fellow has indicated that he would make up an insulator and send it to me for my approval before he would proceed in making any for sale.

Personally, I feel that the bearings selected and the overall design/materials of the insulator would be of no concern. My only concern would be as to how well the "rubber" would adhere to the housing ring. Right off, I can't think of a handy way to "test" that aspect. My thoughts are that a test could be made to see how much pressure it would take to "shear" the rubber from the ring, maybe by use of a bench hydraulic press setup.

Obviously, such a test would not compare with what the factory did in their testing when they were designing these things but with such a small volume of demand for these items,
I can't see where anything more than a simple hydraulic press test would be warranted.

Again, does anyone have an old insulator (or just the ring itself) that you are willing to furnish for the cause???

Thanks!